Etymologies

Examples

As every work of man's or of nature's hand universally contains within itself the elements of its own destruction (or if that term be not agreeable to the Philosopher, of its own dissolution), so every mind contains that which on some one point is certain to thwart and obnubilate the healthy exercise of that reason for which it may have been celebrated, when directed to all things else.

In some unlucky dispositions there is such an envious kind of pride that they cannot endure that any but themselves should be set forth for excellent; so that when they hear one justly praised they will either seek to dismount his virtues, or, if they be like a clear light, they will stab him with a _but_ of detraction; as if there were something yet so foul as did obnubilate even his brightest glory.

Apparently the press secretary is a reader of Ehrlich’s elitist dictionary, or is a fan of Kilpatrick’s delicious column, or—most fittingly for one working in his beclouded state—has been perusing Robert Burton’s 1621 Anatomy of Melancholy: “So doth this melancholy vapour obnubilate the mind.”

McAdam instantly collected his faculties and replied 'It is the pity of the world, Dr. Maturin, to see a man of your parts obnubilate his mind with the juice of the poppy.'

In his journal that night Stephen wrote '...and his blotched face clearing on a sudden, he checked me with my laudanum. I am amazed at his perspicacity. Yet do I indeed obnubilate my mind? Surely not: looking back in this very book, I detect no diminution of activity, mental or physical.'